Hai Beautiful!

I think we hyped it up too much…

If you have read the Illuminae Files series (Illuminae, Gemina and Obsidio) in the past two or so years; a.k.a. since the release of Obsidio, you’d know about Memento, the companion novella that only a few readers were able to get their hands on.

Finally, after begging and begging and begging and more begging from fans of the series, Jay and Amie were able to officially release the once exclusive novella as an eBook!

Goodreads Summary

From New York Times bestselling authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff comes an Illuminae prequel digital novella that gives readers a hair-raising glimpse into the calamity that befell the invincible AI system known as AIDAN–and the daring young programmer who would risk her life to keep it from crashing.

AIDAN is the AI you’ll love to hate.

The advanced AI system was supposed to protect a fleet of survivors who’d escaped the deadly attack on Kerenza IV. AIDAN was supposed to be infallible. But in the chaotic weeks and months that followed, it became clear that something was terribly, terribly wrong with AIDAN… 

I won’t continue to talk about the history and events that lead up to the eBook release of this novella, but just so you are aware, it has been two years since I read Obsidio (the last book in the series). Since then, I have read jay and Amie’s second series, Aurora Cycle which has a very similar, albeit more playful vibe to it.

★ Rating ★

Before I begin the actual book chat/ review, I want to mention that I rated Memento ★★★★☆ (4/5 stars), purely for the fact that I, along with the entire fandom has hyped this novella up far too much.

Book Chat/ Review!

In my excitement to get my hands on it, dive back into the files and revisit AIDAN, I didn’t think to maybe refresh my knowledge on the series and the events that occurred. Guessing where the event of this story fits within the larger picture slightly ruined my experience.

The entire appeal of the Illuminae Files series is the speed of the novels and how over the course of the novels we get to know and fall in love with the characters before inevitable tragedy befalls them. We obviously didn’t get this in such a short novella, so if you’re expecting that from Memento, it isn’t made to break but rather to inform you.

Watching AIDAN’s decline (or growth, depending on how you see it) was the coolest thing. To see where their behaviour originated from and the AI’s theory behind their actions made the events of the series eerier.

There is obviously tragedy between loved ones where, of course, one of them dies (due to AIDAN, duh) and the other does all they can to avenge them. The devastation of the deaths didn’t hit as hard as it would in a full-length novel, but! I was still shocked at the events and you know… I wasn’t very happy about the events that occurred. Only Jay and Amie can make me feel the feels for two characters in less than 100 pages!

All in all, I am so happy that I finally have my hands on a copy of Memento! It feels like forever ago since the novella was announced and we were all greatly shattered that we couldn’t get a copy that instant.

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See you back here on Monday’s (book reviews), Wednesday’s (storytime/ writing updates) and Saturday’s (other bookish content).